Dennis Heiman: Hunting is not a competition

For the past 60 years I have been an avid hunter and fisherman. When I learned of the recent Modoc County competition coyote hunt, my thought was that this is an exercise in gross stupidity. This is not about how much of a threat coyotes present to the livestock industry or whether environmental regulations and trapping prohibitions necessitate an additional control tool (a complete straw-man argument in my view). Ranchers (and anyone else) have a legal right to kill coyotes anytime, anywhere, and it is common practice to do so. The real issue here is the image this kind of event projects on the hunting community.

Hunting organizations and the NRA are on constant watch to sound the alarm against movements or policies they see as threatening the sport of hunting. The anti-hunting crowd themselves couldn’t have come up with a better publicity tool than an organized event where a bunch of folks load up and head out to see who can kill the most coyotes. My own family, while not hunters, have come to understand and accept the reasons I hunt and fully appreciate the items in the freezer that come as a result of that activity. However, I can assure you their reaction to this competition kill would be major disgust. For them, it would conjure up images akin to “The Hunger Games.” I was surprised to see our north state assemblyman come out in support of this event, since he seemingly must be possessed with a good sense of political savvy. If he is a hunter himself, he might be wise to reconsider his position on the matter.

There are a number of good reasons to hunt, including appreciation of nature and the outdoor experience and providing quality food to your family. Seeing who can win a contest to kill the most critters (whether they’re deer, ducks, coyotes or ground squirrels) seriously detracts from these otherwise good reasons. If folks feel they have a need to control predators, there are better ways to accomplish that than to organize a public competition hunt.